M. Gaston TISSANDIER, who for the last quarter of a cen- 
tury has presided over the destinies of La Madzre, has just retired 
from the editorship, and M. Henri de Parville has succeeded 
him. It is not proposed to make any changes in the character 
NATURE 
of the journal, and the traditions which have secured for Za | 
Nature a high degree of success and prosperity will be followed 
by the new editor. 
By leaving almost the whole of his fortune to be converted 
into an fund for the advancement of scientific 
research, the late M. Alfred Nobel performed an act for which 
his memory will be cherished in the world of science. According 
international 
to the terms of the will, as reported by Reuter’s correspondent 
at Stockholm, a fund is to be formed from all his realisable 
property, the yearly interest from which is to be divided into | 
five equal portions. The first of these is to be allotted asa prize 
for the most important discovery in the domain of physics. The 
second is for the principal chemical discovery or improvement. 
The third is for the chief discovery in physiology or medicine. 
The fourth is for the most distinguished literary contribution in 
the same field ; while the fifth is to be allotted to whomsoever 
may have achieved the most, or done the best to promote the 
cause of peace. All these prizes are open to Scandinavians and 
foreigners alike. After a few bequests to individuals have been 
deducted, it is expected that the fund thus devised will amount 
to the sum of 35,000,000 kroner, or nearly two millions 
sterling. The result of this very generous endowment to 
science will be an ever-growing Nobel, 
built up of contributions to natural knowledge ; a monument, 
monument to M. 
too, which will stand out as a testimony of brgad-mindedness 
and devotion to science. M. Nobel was cosmopolitan in more 
ways than one, for he was the master of seven or eight languages. 
He was a Swede by birth, having been born at Stockholm in 
1833. A very appreciative article in the Avdrossan and Salt- 
coats Herald of December 25, evidently written with authority, 
contains a list of 
interesting notes on his personal characteristics. 
his researches and inventions, and some 
M. Nobel 
was educated at St. Petersburg, and subsequently assisted his 
father in his engineering shops at Stockholm, and was little over 
thirty years of age when he became identified largely with ex- 
plosives. On May 7, 1867, he published his great ‘* Dynamite, or 
Nobel’s Safety Powder” paper, which inaugurated a new era in the 
entire world of explosives, and in many branches of engineering. 
His blasting gelatine patent followed in 1875; and the inven- 
tion of Ballistite, a smokeless propelling powder, was patented 
in 1888. M. Nobel was never married. 
WE are glad to announce another gift to science. The 
Paris correspondent of the 7%mes states that the widow of 
Baron Maurice Ilirsch, of Vienna, has resolved to present 
2,000,000 francs to the Pasteur Institute as a memorial of her 
husband. This will enable the building to be enlarged by 
chemical and biological laboratories, which, it is estimated, 
will cost 800,000 francs. Some of the professors, moreover, 
at present receive little or no salary. The gift comes at a very 
appropriate time, and it could not have been bestowed upon 
a worthier object, nor could a better memorial be found, than 
the Pasteur Institute. 
THE twenty-fourth annual dinner of the old students of the 
Royal School of Mines will be held at seven o’clock on Tuesday, 
January 26, at the Criterion Restaurant. The chair will be 
taken by Dr. T. K. Rose. Tickets may be obtained from Mr. 
H. G. Graves, 5 Robert Street, Adelphi, W.C. 
QuiITE recently a considerable number of additions to our 
knowledge of the Rontgen rays and their applications have 
been published. From Prof. Hobday we have just received 
a reprint of his and Mr. V. E. Johnson’s joint paper in the 
Veterinarian for September, dealing with the use of these rays 
NO. 1419, VOL. 55] 
[ JANUARY ¥, 1897 
in veterinary practice, illustrated by several excellent radio- 
graphs of the hoof and hock of horses, both normal and ab- 
normal. In the Azlletin of the Belgian Royal Academy, 
M. L. N. Vandevyver enunciates the empirical law that the 
length of exposure for radiographs through limbs of different 
dimensions varies as the cube of their thickness, and the 
illustrations which accompany the paper afford ample corrobora- 
tion of the law from a practical point of view. The Journal of 
the Camera Club for December contains the account of a lecture, 
by Prof. Riicker, on the transparency of glass and porcelain to 
these rays, from which it appears that the presence of phosphates 
in china is indicated by their greater opacity, a result which 
might naturally be expected to follow from the considerable 
opacity of bone to Rontgen rays. M. Bouchard, in a com- 
munication to the Paris Académie des Sciences, states that 
Rontgen rays can be successfully employed in diagnosing 
pleurisy and similar complaints. 
A CURIOUS optical phenomenon is exhibited by the accom- 
panying tracing, made by a finely-pointed top spinning on a 
plate of glass covered by a light coat of lampblack, and sent to 
us by Dr. C. B. Warring. If the spiral is looked at with either 
eye, the other being closed, one seems to see the inside of a 
hollow truncated cone, the smaller base being farthermost ; or 
else only the outside will be seen, the smaller base being 
apparently nearest. If the eyes be opened and closed alter- 
| nately, the image may appear to each in the same position, per- 
| is due. 
haps for half-a-dozen alternations, and then, without apparent 
cause, reverse, or it may reverse for one eye and not for the 
other. If both eyes be opened, only one image may appear, 
sometimes in one position and sometimes in the other. The. 
principle seems to be the same as that which applies to a 
polished hemisphere laid on a plane surface, and looked at 
from a little distance. 
AT a meeting of the Société Francaise de Physique, on 
December 4, M. Jean Perrin described his investigations on the 
dissociation of neutral electricity produced in gases by Rontgen 
rays, to which their power of discharging insulated conductors 
At constant temperature the quantity of dissociated 
electricity per unit volume is ce¢er?s parzbus proportional to the 
pressure, and hence to the density of the gas. At constant 
pressure it is independent of the temperature, and since the 
density is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature, it 
follows that the quantity dissociated per unit mass is independent 
of the pressure, and varies as the absolute temperature. At the 
same meeting, M. Broca made some interesting statements 
about the baldness produced by Rontgen rays, which is caused 
by the hairs falling off with the skin. The scars are sometimes 
not produced till three weeks after the skin was exposed to 
the rays, and where the cuticle is replaced by cicatrised tissue 
the hairs disappear ; but they grow up again everywhere else, 
so that the rays cannot be used for depilatory purposes. 
